Categories/ Announcements

Announcements


As of 15:00 today, May 10, 2013, we regret to announce that we will be withdrawing the function to send purchased stickers as gifts to friends on the iPhone version of LINE. 

We received a request directly from Apple who operates the AppStore, that this sticker gifting function will have to be withdrawn from the app, and we do apologize for the disappointment this may cause to all of you who are having fun sending stickers as gifts to your friends. 

Functions withdrawn from the iPhone version of LINE:
・Gifting function of paid-for stickers to friends
・Purchasing of Coins necessary to use the gifting function
*LINE Coins are required to purchase stickers and themes in LINE versions 4.6.0 and above. Additionally, you can no longer gift paid sticker sets to friends, even if you purchase them using LINE Coins. (Added September 1, 2014)

If you still have Coins remaining:
If you have over 100 Coins remaining, you will be able to continue sending stickers as gifts until you have used up all your Coins. If you only have 50 Coins remaining and cannot send stickers as gifts, please contact us. We will be happy to provide you with additional Coins to cover the shortfall, as 100 Coins are the minimum amount required in order to enable you to send a single sticker set as a gift. 
*Coin balances for purchasing gifts became part of regular Coin balances in LINE versions 4.6.0 and above, and can no longer be used for gifts. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. (Added September 1, 2014)

We would like to also inform you that you will still be able to send free stickers as gifts to your friends as well as purchase stickers for yourself. Also, iPhone users will still be able to receive sticker gifts from Android users as usual.

We do apologize for any disappointment and ask for your kind understanding.


Announcements


A MASSIVE THANK YOU to all our users! As of today we have reached 100 million* users around the globe!

Each and every one of you have contributed to making LINE what it is today. By giving us your detailed thoughts and feedback, likes and dislikes as well as new ideas, we feel we have worked together with you to reach this impressive result. 

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Updated Figures and Received Awards

▼Figures regarding LINE
Registered User Numbers: 100 million worldwide
Used in 231 countries/regions
Ranked No.1 in 41   App Store locations worldwide
Ranking of popular stickers:
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▼Awards Received
  • iTunes BEST OF 2012: No.1 in Top Free category (Japan) 
  • iF DESIGN AWARDS 2013: Cross-Media Advertising Award 
  • GOOD DESIGN GOLD AWARD 2012
  • 2012 Shogakukan Dime Trend Award
  • BEST TEAM OF THE YEAR 2012
  • The 17th AMD Award: Digital Contents of the Year ‘11 
  • Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun: Nikkei Superior Products Service Award 2012 
  • Nikkei MJ Hit Products 2012 
  • Nikkei Trendy: Hit Products of 2012: No.2 out of 30
  • Top Worldwide in Non-Game Apps by Monthly Revenues for iOS/Google Play (November 2012) 
  • elEconomista: Nominated for Best Technology Award 2012 (Spain) 
  • EL PAIS: Nominated for Best Trend of 2012 (Spain) 


100 million users in a year and 7 months – We see this as just the start-point of our LINE app.

Nothing will make us happier than for you, our users, to keep enjoying our app and help us develop it together. 

We hope you keep enjoying your chats with LINE!

Thanks for reading and have fun!



Additional notes regarding this blog entry

*Total download figures are for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry App, Windows Phones and Feature Phones combined.
Source: NHN Japan Corporation




Announcements


Sorry everyone! We have discovered that the function which allows you to add your Facebook friends to LINE has not been running correctly and have had to discontinue it. This function was released on versions 3.0.0 and higher for Android on 26 November and we stopped this function on 28 November at 3am (JST). 

We are currently discussing how to fix and improve the function with Facebook, as well as readying the function for the iOS version of LINE. 

Please rest assured that this only applies to the function to add your Facebook friends. So you can still register as a new user as well as carrying your account over with your Facebook account.

Also, any Facebook friends you may have added to LINE will remain on your friends list. 

Once we have any new information about this function, we will be posting it on here! 

Thanks for reading!



Announcements


We at the NHN Japan Corporation would like to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to each and every one of our customers.

As you may know, we operate and own the free calling and messaging application “LINE”, and yesterday (31 Oct 2012)  we experienced some technical problems with the PC version of LINE leading to some of our users receiving random messages from unknown users during their chats due to a crossover of chat messages.

We would like to offer our sincere apologies for the anxiety and inconvenience this has caused to our users.

In order to carry out the necessary revisions to our system, there were moments when the PC version of LINE was made temporarily unavailable, however the problems have been rectified and the PC version is now up and running as normal.

At NHN Japan, we are taking this occurrence very seriously and will continue to work hard in order to prevent this from happening again.


Further Information

Summary:
On 31 October 2012, problems with the PC version of LINE led to the following:

1) For approx. 5 minute period from 18:55 (JST) on the 31 October 2012, some users of the PC version of LINE received random messages from unknown users during their chats due to a crossover of chat messages. 

Causes:
Problems were caused by a technical fault with the system running the PC version, whilst attempting to update. 
As soon as the problem was detected, it was immediately dealt with and has already been fixed.

Extent of the problem:
We have confirmed that the problem affected 86 users  in total who sent messages using the PC version of LINE which were subsequently delivered incorrectly to unintended users. Furthermore, we have received inquiries from 12 users so far regarding this problem.

Circumstances:
31/Oct (Wed)
18:55   PC version of LINE: Systems are updated
　　　　  Problems are detected where some users of the PC version receive random messages from unknown users during their chats due to a crossover of chat messages
     Works gets underway on fixing the problem
19:00  Problem is rectified
19:15  PC users who received the incorrect messages are forcefully logged out in order to prevent these messages from being read 
19:25　Log out process is completed. An investigation into the causes and the extent of the problem begins
20:50  Primary announcement made to users via the official LINE Facebook page
21:49  Secondary announcement made to users via the LINE Official Blog

1/Nov (Thu)  
19:00  Investigation into the causes and the extent of the problem is completed
21:00  Official statement released by NHN Japan Corporation
            Furthermore, the regulatory agencies have been notified
   
Customer Support:
After the start of the problem, a fixed version of the software was released immediately. After logging in again, the problem was rectified and users did not receive any further messages from unknown users. The message histories of the users affected were able to be accessed as normal. 

Furthermore, our support teams are individually contacting all the users affected by the problem. As a small consolation, we are sending a 500 yen Amazon gift voucher to each of those affected.

Measures for future prevention:
To prevent the problem from re-occurring, we have introduced stricter regulations and checks by our development, quality assurance and security teams to improve the overall security to all our company systems.

Contact Customer Support:
If you have been affected,  you can get in touch with our customer support team via the Problem Report Form , and they will provide a rapid response to your inquiry. 

LINE Customer Support (Problem Report Form)




Announcements


 At approximately 7pm (JST) on 31 October there were some problems with the PC version of LINE. Some users may have experienced random messages from unknown users during their chats caused by temporary system problems which occurred for a few minutes. We have rushed to fix this and the problems have now been rectified. 

 In addition to fixing the problem, we have also deleted the contents of the messages sent from unknown users and you should be able to login an enjoy the PC version of LINE without any further problems. 

 Furthermore, those who were forcefully logged out of the PC version of LINE during the problem will be able to login as normal. 

 If you were affected please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused on this occasion.

 We will of course, keep working hard on improving the stability of our systems. 

 Thank you very much for reading and please continue to enjoy our LINE service. 

 We will be releasing a formal statement about this issue at a later date. 
Formal statement
 



Announcements

For quality control and the improvement of our services, we will be performing routine maintenance of our systems at the times below.

▼Date
25 October: 4am – 6am JST

▼Affected Areas
- iPhone version: sticker purchases and access to purchase history may be affected.
- Android version: charging of Coins, sticker purchases, and access to purchase history/Coins page may be affected.

▼Aims
To improve our server environments, in order to provide an even better service.


Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you.
We are committed to working on improving our existing features and your understanding is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading, and we hope you continue to enjoy LINE!




Services


We have been aware of the annoying issue where iPhone5 users and those using iOS6 have been repeatedly asked to enter their Apple ID and password every time they start LINE. We do apologize for the problem.

We are still trying to get to the bottom of the issue. In the mean time, you can get rid of the problem by following the steps below. 


■Enter the [Stickers] menu and [Restore Sticker Purchases]
1. Start LINE and tap [More] > [Settings]
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2. Tap [Stickers]
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3. Tap [Purchase History]
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4. Scroll to the bottom and tap [Restore Sticker Purchases]
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5. Enter your Apple ID password
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Once you have carried out the above steps, you should no longer be prompted to enter your Apple ID details.

However, we are aware of cases where you may be asked to enter your Apple ID details once again after starting LINE. If you are prompted to do so, please don’t panic! After entering your Apple ID once more, you will no longer need to do so in the future.

If by any chance, the problem still hasn’t been sorted out after trying the above, please try signing out and then back in with your Apple ID as follows.

■If the steps above do not fix the problem:
　
1. Sign out of your Apple ID
1-1. Open your iPhone [Settings] and go into [iTunes Store/App Store]
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1-2. Tap your own Apple ID [Apple ID: XXXXX (Your ID) XXXXXXX]
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1-3. Tap [Sign Out]
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2. Start LINE without logging into your Apple ID
3. Try the steps above (Restoring Sticker Purchases from the Stickers menu) 
4. Enter your Apple ID and password again

After doing this, the problem should be fixed and you should no longer be asked to enter your Apple ID.
Hurray!

We’re sorry if you have been affected by this problem. 
Of course, we will keep working on removing bugs as well as improving our existing functions, so please continue to enjoy LINE and keep your chats fresh, fun and friendly!




   

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The latest information about the FREE calling & FREE messaging app LINE.